By this time next year, doctors will be settling into the state-of-the-art building situated close to the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Construction work has already reached its halfway point and the £20m project is on budget and on time.

Gillian Deveney, one of eight GPs at Oakview Medical Practice in Bank Street who will move to the new building, last week had a look at how work is progressing.

She said: “I am really impressed by the sense of space and light.

“I think for all of our staff and patients having natural light coming in from windows – as we don’t have windows in every room at the moment – will make a huge difference to our working day.

“There are three GP wings and we have one.

“We have a great outlook on to the park, to the old torpedo factory and the hills beyond.

“The facilities here include a library and meeting rooms for everybody within the centre to use.”

Dr Deveney was among a group of invited guests who had a tour round the site last week to see how the work was coming on.

Soumen Sengupta, of West Dunbartonshire community health and care partnership, said: “We are coming towards the halfway point in terms of the actual construction process which is on schedule and on budget.

“Everyone is blown away by it.

“We have had engagement with local communities across the area over the best part of a year and a half. We have had a lot of input from them which has been incredibly valuable.

“People are seeing the development as they pass it. When they walk up the hill towards the Vale Hospital they can see what they have contributed which is great.”

As well as focusing on environmental stability, one of the main aims of the project is to build a facility focused on providing excellent services.

Mr Sengupta said: “It’s a very welcoming, reassuring environment for patients and their families.

“At the moment, you can get a sense of it.

“This looks like no other health centre in the UK, possibly in Europe, and there are a number of things going on which you won’t find at any other health centre in the UK.

“The health centre’s bus stop will be right outside the front door at the pedestrian entrance so people can walk straight up into the centre.

“Given how long people have waited for this, the last thing we want is something average.

“It will be a welcoming and relaxing environment in a fantastic location.

“We couldn’t build this type of building within any other location in Alexandria.”

Building work is set to be completed next spring with the centre due to open during the summer of 2013.

The modern site will be home to three large practices, dietetics, podiatry, speech and language therapy, primary care mental health, physiotherapy and a large dental complex including a general dental practice.

It will also provide an excellent local base for district nurses, health visitors, the prescribing support team, integrated health and social care workers and first class training and education facilities.